Business returned to normal in the Ugandan capital Kampala on Monday, after up to 15 people were killed last week during clashes between security forces and supporters of Ronald Muwenda Mutebi, head of the Kabaka ethnic group.

Public transport resumed by Saturday evening and banks and most businesses opened on Monday. There were also fewer armed men as calm returned to the city.

Police chief Maj. General Kale Kayihura told a press conference in Kampala, Sunday, that the official death toll had risen to 14; but he was immediately informed by journalists at the government media centre that a little baby who had been hit by a stray bullet had died shortly before in the country's Mulago national referral hospital.

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At least 10 people are reported to have been killed as riots that have rocked the Ugandan capital of Kampala and other towns entered a second day. The rioting came after the central government moved to prevent Ronald Muwenda Mutebi, the king of the Baganda people – Uganda's largest ethnic group – from visiting a part of his territory.

Police would not give details of deaths – reported on various radio stations – but many were said to have died of bullet wounds, amid gunfire and thick clouds of smoke. Kampala is located about 340 kilometres southwest of Katine.

Demonstrators – mostly youths from the Baganda tribe – blocked roads, and burnt vehicles and tyres, protesting the decision to block the King's tour of Kayunga district in the eastern part of Buganda kingdom. The government deployed soldiers, military police and regular police – some on armoured vehicles – to quell the riots.

The armed men shot mostly in the air, but the protesters replied with stones, before retreating and resurfacing later. Most businesses in Kampala and major towns in the Buganda area remained closed and the government shut down four radio stations that were broadcasting news of what was happening in the kingdom.

On Thursday, a photojournalist for Kampala's Observer newspaper was detained and beaten by the military police after he took pictures of soldiers near a corpse lying on a Kampala street. The soldiers deleted the offending pictures.

Although Uganda is a republic, the Constitution allows kings and other traditional leaders in most areas where they existed before and shortly after independence. These, however, are barred from participating in politics. But these cultural institutions also have their 'cultural' governments complete with ministerial cabinets (the Teso region, where Katine falls, is led by the 'Emorimori').

The Baganda make up 17% of the estimated 30 million Ugandans. They are found in central and part of southern Uganda and the capital Kampala is in their area. For years the Baganda have been demanding a federal system of governance but President Museveni rejects the demand, saying it would breed chaos.

Relations between the Ugandan and the Buganda governments have also been strained by a Buganda demand that the central government hands over 9,000 square miles of land held by the kingdom administration until 1967, when the monarchies were abolished. The Museveni administration restored the largely popular traditional institutions with Mutebi's coronation in 1993.

President Museveni's government says it cannot allow Kabaka Mutebi to visit Kayunga because it cannot guarantee his security there. A former Ugandan soldier belonging to the 'Banyala', a sub-tribe within the district, now claims to be a king of his own and has opposed Kabaka Mutebi's visit. Last year, the Kabaka's visit to another district of Nakasongola was blocked by the central government, after a man belonging to the 'Baruli' sub-tribe claimed cultural sovereignty there.

On Thursday, Museveni told Buganda area MPs that before king Mutebi visits Kayunga, he must get the consent of the hitherto little-known king there.But critics argue that by propping up such leaders and blocking the king's visits, Museveni is trying to divide the kingdom and weaken the popular cultural leader whose strategically-located kingdom refuses to back down on demands for federalism and land.